Before we quit the consideration of spontaneous combustion, it becomes our duty to offer a few observations upon a subject which appears to be nearly allied to it, and which certainly belongs to medico-judicial inquiry,—the combustion of human beings; the phenomenon, however, has been erroneously designated as spontaneous, for in every recorded instance, the approach of some burning body, as that of the flame of a candle, or an ignited pipe, appears to have been necessary for its occurrence. “It can no longer be doubted,” says Dr. Gordon Smith, “that persons have retired to their chambers in the usual manner, and in place of the individual, a few cinders, and perhaps part of his bones, were found.” Upon this occasion we confess ourselves more sceptical; the phenomenon is contrary to all our preconceived views, and must therefore require more than ordinary testimony for its support, although we are ready to admit, that upon any other less miraculous subject, evidence even less powerful than that produced on the present occasion, would be deemed amply sufficient. Plouquet, in his Literatura Medica, enumerates twenty-eight cases. Dr. Trotter, in his Essay on Drunkenness, adduces a considerable number of instances of persons addicted to the immoderate use of spirits, having undergone such combustion. In Paris, an essay written exclusively on this subject was published by Pierre AimÉe Lair, entitled “Essai sur les combustions humaines, produites par l’abus des liq. spirit: Paris 1808;” and the journals of various nations^[607] present us with a great variety of examples, all of which, with some slight shades of difference, appear to have been attended with the same phenomena: a fact which we freely admit affords internal evidence of their authenticity. On the other hand it deserves notice, that amidst all these cases, only one^[608] is related where the person survived for a short time, and gave an account of the manner in which he was struck with the fire; in none of the others has it ever been known in what way the fire commenced, or proceeded. The following are the circumstances in which all the recorded cases so singularly concur.

1. The persons who have suffered this species of combustion have been long accustomed to drink spirtuous liquors.

2. These persons have been generally females, and advanced in years.

3. The body has not burned spontaneously, but accidentally, in as much as it required for its inflammation the contact or approach of some burning body, or that of electric matter.

4. The extremities of the body, such as the feet and hands, have in general escaped.

5. The fire has little injured, and sometimes not at all, those combustible things that were in contact with the body when it was burning.^[609]

6. The combustion of these bodies has left a residue of greasy and foetid ashes and fat, that were unctuous, and extremely offensive and penetrating.

Various theories have been proposed for the explanation of this singular phenomenon; and we may here observe, that if the bodies in question were actually found consumed, in the manner described, it is quite impossible to suppose that they were burnt by ordinary means; nor, even admitting that they had been rubbed over with a highly combustible substance, is the explanation less difficult; at a period when criminals were condemned to expiate their crimes in the flames, it is well known what a large quantity of combustible materials was required for burning their bodies. A baker’s boy, named Renaud, being several years ago condemned to be burnt at Caen, two large cart loads of faggots were required to consume the body; and at the end of more than ten hours some remains were still visible. In this country the extreme incombustibility of the human body was exemplified in the case of Mrs. King, who having been murdered by a Foreigner, was afterwards burnt by him; but in the execution of this plan he was engaged for several weeks, and after all did not succeed in its completion.